title: Revealing anti-cariogenic efficacy of smokeless tobacco: A pilot study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The tobacco plant, Nicotiana tabacum, has been responsible for more deaths than any other herb. However, the literature has also been endowed with its use as "holy herb" since the pre-Columbian era. Used for treating pain, poisonous bites, ulcers, nasal polyps, and basal cell carcinoma; it also acts as an important ingredient of commercially available toothpastes; and even used as tobacco vaccines against Streptococcus species as highlighted in the literature.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  (1) To elicit the anti-microbial property of tobacco against Streptococcus mutans, if any, in raw smokeless tobacco. (2) To study the relationship of duration and growth inhibition efficacy of smokeless tobacco.
  
  
  METHODS
  Extracts were prepared by centrifugation of mixed raw smokeless tobacco with Ringer's lactate solution and with saliva. The extracts were placed in wells prepared on Mitis salivarius culture plate and incubated at 37°C for 24 h after 0 h, 1 h, and 2 h of extract preparation. The inhibition zones were measured on the underside of plate using the vernier calipers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Smokeless tobacco has a statistically significant zone of inhibition, which proves its anti-microbial activity against S. mutans. However, the mean zones of inhibition were greater for Ringer's lactate and tobacco group as compared to test samples (saliva and tobacco) with subsequent reduction of inhibition zones with an increase in duration.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The anti-microbial property of extensive tobacco resources can be utilized from their extracts in order to balance the deterioration it had caused to mankind.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology, Faculty of Dental Sciences, Chatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Ankita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tandon
authors.forename: Narendra Nath
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Gadiputi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sreedhar
keywords: Anti-cariogenecity; Streptococcus mutans; tobacco